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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26681536">Back At You</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Renaerys/pseuds/Renaerys'>Renaerys</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Beyond This Morning [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Powerpuff Girls</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, blossom has good taste, clownery unleashed, greens are soft okay let me live, in which buttercup is having a crisis and the most unlikely person comes to the rescue, it's Brisa's 6th birthday party and you know it's going to be fun</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 10:28:03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>6,358</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26681536</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Renaerys/pseuds/Renaerys</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>When Buttercup's birthday planning falls apart at the last minute, the last person she would ever expect offers his help (or horror, depending on your perspective). Greens.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Butch/Buttercup Utonium</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Beyond This Morning [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1718914</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>40</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>120</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Back At You</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeaLovingTooru/gifts">TeaLovingTooru</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I have missed so many birthdays this month and last, including Aves’, for which I’m so sorry! Work is crazy and I’m lazy. To our resident gothic heroine, please accept this belated Greens one-shot with much love and affection. 💚</p><p>A heartfelt shoutout as well to the Instagram clown cult. Y’all know who you are and how much you inspire me to chronicle Brick’s eternal suffering in new and creative ways. It’s what we do.</p><p>This is yet another spoiler-free BTM one-shot sequel, and probably the last one I’ll do before the official multi chapter sequel. This takes place roughly two months after the events of that fic. As usual, I think you can mostly enjoy this without having read BTM, but there’s some backstory with the brothers here that will be a little confusing if you haven’t. I hope you enjoy!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">Buttercup’s phone buzzed on the nightstand by her head, and she jerked awake. Swallowing the bitter sleep taste, she wiped her mouth and fumbled for the phone. Head still buried in the pillow, she answered: “What time is it?”</p><p class="p1">“Time to get your ass to the precinct,” said Ty, her partner at the Citiesville Police Department. “Chief Foolery’s all hands meeting starts in twenty minutes. Tell me you’re not still asleep.”</p><p class="p1">Buttercup sprang up on her elbows and checked the time on her phone. Shit, she was going to be late. “Shit, I’m going to be late!”</p><p class="p1">“Girl, that’s what I’m tellin’ you—”</p><p class="p1">“Gotta go, bye!” Buttercup hung up the phone and would have launched out of bed if not for the arm that slipped around her waist and pulled her back down.</p><p class="p1">“Five more minutes,” Butch grumbled.</p><p class="p1">Buttercup lost her balance and ended up with her bare back flush against his equally bare chest. His breath was hot on the back of her neck where he pushed his nose among her loose black hair. “Butch, I have to go,” she said in a warning tone.</p><p class="p1">He chuckled, and it sent a thrill of heat down her spine and under the covers, where he pushed a knee between her thighs. “Why go when you could come?” The arm he’d looped around her waist traveled low beneath the sheets.</p><p class="p1">Buttercup groaned at his crass joke and caught his wrist before he could carry out the threat. “Because if I’m not at CPD headquarters in twenty minutes, Foolery’s going to pop a hemorrhoid—”</p><p class="p1">Butch flipped them over with his Super speed, and her back hit the mattress beneath him. He loomed over her, those green eyes acid-bright in the early morning sunlight streaming through his bedroom window. Her traitorous gaze raked up his chest, over the shadow of stubble on his jaw, and settled on those fast darkening eyes as he admired her in turn. But the moment he bent down to kiss her, she slipped out from under him in a flash of green and darted across the room. In a matter of seconds, she’d pulled out a spare change of clothes from the lone dresser drawer he’d cleared out for her use.</p><p class="p1">“Leaving me hangin’? For real?” Butch complained as he flopped back down among the sheets with a yawn.</p><p class="p1">“You’ll live. But<em> I </em>won’t if I’m late for this fuckery.” She dressed quickly in dark jeans and a button-up blouse before heading to the connecting bathroom Butch shared with his daughter, Brisa.</p><p class="p1">“Missin’ out!” Butch called from the bedroom.</p><p class="p1"><em>Yeah</em>, Buttercup thought as she combed through the tangles in her hair with her fingers and ran the water to brush her teeth. A knock on the door interrupted her morning ablutions, and Brisa entered through her bedroom door.</p><p class="p1">“G’morning,” she said. Her brown hair was a frizzy mess, and she clutched a stuffed purple Pretty Puff Pony under one arm.</p><p class="p1">Despite her haste to get out of there and jet to work, Buttercup spared the little girl a soft smile. “Morning, kid. You’re up early.”</p><p class="p1">Brisa grinned wide. “I couldn’t sleep.”</p><p class="p1">Buttercup’s smile fell immediately. “Did Butch sneak you that second chocolate bar after dinner last night? Goddamnit—<em>Butch</em>!”</p><p class="p1">“What, change your mind?” he called. “I knew you couldn’t leave before climbing my morning wood.”</p><p class="p1">Brisa made a face like she was going to ask, and Buttercup slammed Butch’s bedroom door shut. “Never mind. Let me guess, you were too excited to sleep because today’s your birthday, right?”</p><p class="p1">Brisa blinked up at her and smiled, her questions forgotten. “Yeah! Oh my gosh, we’re gonna have <em>so </em>much fun!”</p><p class="p1">Buttercup chuckled and ruffled her messy hair. “For sure. But first, I have to go to work.”</p><p class="p1">“You’ll be back for my party, right?”</p><p class="p1">“One hundred percent.”</p><p class="p1">“Pinky promise?” Brisa held out her little finger.</p><p class="p1">Buttercup hooked her pinky around Brisa’s. “I promise. Now go get dressed and brush your teeth. I’ll check on your dad.”</p><p class="p1">“Okay!”</p><p class="p1">Buttercup breezed through the bedroom, chucked Butch his sweat pants with a cautionary “Hide your dick,” and flew out of her paramour’s two-bedroom apartment in downtown Townsville just as Brisa came bursting in excited to start the day.</p><hr/><p class="p1">The morning was a complete waste of time, and a bitter part of Buttercup lamented not skipping out in favor of staying in bed with Butch. </p><p class="p1">“Well, at least nobody died today,” Ty said as he and munched on his doner kebab lunch to go. “Yet.”</p><p class="p1">Buttercup sucked down half of a water bottle after scarfing down her own lunch. They had stopped at the food truck parked a couple blocks from the precinct, opting for a quick fix as they watched oblivious pedestrians lost to their Air Pods. “Welcome back to active duty, Mr. Brightside.”</p><p class="p1">Ty chuckled, low and deep. After a few months of healing and rigorous physical therapy, his legs were completely healed and he’d finally been cleared for work that didn’t involve pushing papers at his desk. Once more standing tall with the sun shining off his bald head, Buttercup could not have been happier to have her partner back to his old self by her side.</p><p class="p1">“You bring it outta me.” Ty winked.</p><p class="p1">“You ready to head out?” she asked, tossing her wrapper in a corner trashcan. Traffic was shit as usual midday on a Saturday, but they had time before Brisa’s party was slated to start.</p><p class="p1">“Sure. Lemme just text Melanie.”</p><p class="p1">Buttercup figured she better catch up with Butch while she waited for Ty and make sure he was on the ball.</p><p class="p1">[Buttercup: Did you pick up the cake?]</p><p class="p1">After a few seconds, he replied.</p><p class="p1">[Butch: Omw with B. You still on clown duty?]</p><p class="p1">Buttercup groaned at the reminder.</p><p class="p1">[Buttercup: Can I just say he died and couldn’t make it?]</p><p class="p1">[Butch: Sure, if you want to crush B’s hopes and dreams <span class="s1">💔😈</span>]</p><p class="p1">“Kill me.”</p><p class="p1">“What’s wrong now?” Ty asked.</p><p class="p1">Buttercup pocketed her phone and led the way to the precinct parking lot where Ty’s car was parked. “Just grappling with some casual childhood trauma coming back to bite me in the ass.”</p><p class="p1">Ty side-eyed her. “Which one?”</p><p class="p1">“Ha ha.”</p><p class="p1">They made it to his red hatchback, and Buttercup slipped into the passenger seat.</p><p class="p1">“This about Brisa’s birthday party?” Ty asked.</p><p class="p1">Buttercup groaned again and tugged at her loose hair. “Of all the things, a <em>clown</em>? I thought they were universally considered nightmare fodder for kids these days.”</p><p class="p1">“Speakin’ of which, I think I remember a psychotic clown attacking Townsville back in the day.”</p><p class="p1">“You remember correctly.” Buttercup glowered out the window as Ty eased them into traffic toward the Golden Bay Bridge. “But it was the one thing she said she just <em>had</em> to have because some other dumb kid in her class got one for her party.”</p><p class="p1">“Ah. Six years old and already the social food chain’s tuggin’ on her.”</p><p class="p1">“Whatever. I never cared about that shit when I was a kid.”</p><p class="p1">Ty smiled to himself. “Uh-huh.”</p><p class="p1">Buttercup resigned herself to her unfortunate fate and dialed the company she’d previously contracted to rent a clown for the afternoon. After about five minutes on the phone, she hung up.</p><p class="p1">“What was that all about?” Ty asked. “Problem?”</p><p class="p1">Buttercup stared straight ahead as the Golden Bay Bridge’s suspender cables passed her by. “The clown died.”</p><p class="p1">Ty laughed.</p><p class="p1">“Ty.” Buttercup looked directly at him. “The guy got hit by a bus on his way to work today and he <em>died</em>.”</p><p class="p1">Ty shut up. “Oh, uh… Shit.”</p><p class="p1">A pause.</p><p class="p1">“I mean, is there another clown, or…?”</p><p class="p1">“I <em>don’t fucking know</em>,” Buttercup snapped. All she could think of was how Brisa was going to be so upset that the <em>one goddamned thing</em> she had asked for wasn’t going to happen because there was no time to book a new party clown on such short notice on a Saturday.</p><p class="p1">When Ty shifted in his seat, the leather squeaked loudly in the fuming silence he wisely chose not to break, until he did. “So, should I—”</p><p class="p1">“Just drive. I’ll think of something…” Buttercup said as she pulled out her phone and tried not to completely lose her shit as she dialed the one person who always seemed to know what to do in a crisis.</p><p class="p1">“Hey, Blossom,” Buttercup said gravely after her sister picked up. “I think I need some help.”</p><hr/><p class="p1">When Buttercup and Ty parked in front of her childhood home, guests had already begun arriving. Bubbles was outside greeting people and directing them to the backyard for the festivities. When she spotted Buttercup and Ty, she waved. “Hey, there you are!”</p><p class="p1">“Have you seen Blossom?” Buttercup asked.</p><p class="p1">Bubbles pushed up the sleeves of her chunky lavender sweater and looked around. “I think she and Princess were setting up the piñata. Is everything okay—”</p><p class="p1">Buttercup dashed to the backyard in a blaze of green, leaving Ty to make his way inside at a more sedate pace. The backyard was already teeming with people. Brisa was playing tag with her best friend Richie and a few other kids, while Boomer stacked presents on a table by the back door. Mike and Robin led the day drinking charge by pouring out sangria for the adults and juice for the kids. Buttercup nearly crashed through the green tissue streamers criss-crossing the enclosed backyard in her haste to locate her sister, who was in fact stringing up a red monster-shaped piñata with Princess Morbucks. Or rather, Blossom was doing all the work while Princess held two glasses of bloody sangria and provided live commentary.</p><p class="p1">“Whoever invented piñatas had the right idea is all I’m saying,” Princess said as she sipped her drink. She was annoyingly chic as usual in designer jeans, dark boots, and a purple silk blouse that probably cost more than the pittance Buttercup’s government paycheck brought in every month.</p><p class="p1">“You think so?” Blossom said, floating near a high branch so she could toss the suspension rope over it.</p><p class="p1">“Of course. You’re rewarded with candy for smashing the shit out of your mortal enemy. What could be better than that?”</p><p class="p1">Blossom grinned. “Mortal enemy in effigy.” She patted the red monster’s snout. “But you’re not wrong.”</p><p class="p1">“Obviously.” Princess handed her back her sangria, and they shared a knowing laugh.</p><p class="p1">“Blossom,” Buttercup said.</p><p class="p1">Blossom smoothed the front of her navy skirt as she turned toward Buttercup. “You’re here. Everything all right?”</p><p class="p1">Buttercup eyed Princess watching them. “I was going to ask you the same thing. Any progress on the clown front?”</p><p class="p1">“I’m sorry, the <em>what</em>?” Princess asked.</p><p class="p1">Blossom’s pink eyes softened, and she put a hand on Buttercup’s shoulder. “I took care of it, don’t worry.”</p><p class="p1">“Wait, really? How? I called five other rental companies, but everything’s booked solid.”</p><p class="p1">Blossom’s smile turned devious. “Trust me. Brisa’s going to be very pleased.” Buttercup wanted to argue, but her sister squeezed her shoulder in a silent entreaty. “Just enjoy the party. Boomer, Bubbles, and I have everything under control.”</p><p class="p1">“Speaking of control,” Princess had her phone out when Blossom turned back to her, “where is that prima donna? He’s not answering any of my texts.”</p><p class="p1">“Brick’s running a little late,” Blossom said as she led Princess away. “Wardrobe malfunction…”</p><p class="p1">Their voices faded to the background as Buttercup watched them. Two peas in a fucking pod, and she still didn’t really get what Blossom saw in Princess. If Princess hadn’t played such an integral part in things a couple months back, she would never have given the woman a second thought beyond “Hard pass.”</p><p class="p1">People, however, had a tendency to surprise when it was down to the wire.</p><p class="p1">“Heads up, Buttercup!”</p><p class="p1">Buttercup automatically caught the child hurtling through the air like a tossed water balloon before he could crack his head open.</p><p class="p1">“O-Oh! Hi, Buttercup,” said Richie, meek and curled in on himself like he’d forgotten he was no longer fragile.</p><p class="p1">Brisa came dashing over. “Nice catch!”</p><p class="p1">Buttercup peeled Richie off her and dropped him flat on his ass in the grass. “Brisa, don’t yeet your friends. Bubbles will have an aneurism if she catches you.”</p><p class="p1">Brisa blushed, abashed. “Sorry…”</p><p class="p1">Buttercup cracked a smile and winked, and Brisa lit up.</p><p class="p1">“I’m okay!” Richie, Super resilient, hopped onto his feet and shook out his fluffy blond hair. “Um, does this mean I’m ‘it’ now?”</p><p class="p1">“No, I wanna play with the clown!” Brisa announced.</p><p class="p1">Buttercup’s face fell. “Uh, about that…”</p><p class="p1">Brisa blinked up at her. “He’s coming to my party, right?”</p><p class="p1">The flicker of doubt that passed through Brisa’s big brown eyes cracked Buttercup’s cold stone heart. She struggled for the words to let her down gently, because whatever Blossom had managed to put together so last minute wasn’t going to be the colorful surprise Buttercup had gone out of her way to book and customize a month in advance.</p><p class="p1">A round of squeals from the other kids across the yard drew her attention, where they had gathered around Mike at the garden door. “Okay, settle down, kiddos! He’s a <em>little</em> shy. Now, where’s the birthday girl at? Hey, Brisa!”</p><p class="p1">“C’mon, Brisa, let’s go,” Richie said, tugging on her hand.</p><p class="p1">But she held her ground and didn’t budge. Buttercup wanted to die.</p><p class="p1">“Brisa, look,” she began.</p><p class="p1">The door behind Mike slid open, and out stepped what Buttercup could only describe as her personal revenge fantasy gone morbidly wrong. Brick had never looked so sour in his life.</p><p class="p1">“Oh! Uh, ta-da!” Mike said hastily as he stepped aside for the person formerly known as Brick until his murder by dishonor.</p><p class="p1">His steps squeaked in his oversized red shoes, and the striped red and yellow overalls he wore over a polkadot shirt ballooned out at his legs. He looked like a tropical bowling pin. He looked <em>fucking absurd</em>.</p><p class="p1">“It’s Flameo Hotman! Say hello, kids,” Mike said.</p><p class="p1">Brick shot Mike a scathing glare that may have incinerated him where he stood if the tiny party hat and enormous red clown nose didn’t ruin the effect. “The <em>hell</em> it is.”</p><p class="p1">Buttercup had no problem averting her eyes from the literal clownery to focus on Brisa, who was still staring and petrified. Oh shit, oh <em>fuck</em>, she was upset and it was Buttercup’s entire fault—</p><p class="p1">“Uncle Brick?” Brisa blurted out.</p><p class="p1">Brick’s lurid eyes passed over Buttercup and landed on Brisa. If Buttercup hadn’t been looking right at him, she would never have believed the way they softened just a little. He pursed his lips and lifted his elastic-tied party hat off his short red hair. It snapped back in place when he let go. “Happy birthday, Brisa.”</p><p class="p1">Brisa immediately dashed out of Richie’s grip in a sprint too fast to be human and body slammed Brick where he stood. With a grunt, he managed to catch her and keep his balance as she hugged him tight around his inflated waist and laughed. “You look <em>so funny</em>!”</p><p class="p1">Brick coughed. “Yeah, that’s sort of the point…”</p><p class="p1">The other kids took that as their cue to also mob Brick, and soon he was adrift in a sea of grubby hands and demands for balloon animals and magic tricks. Buttercup could not believe her eyes. She could hardly remember the last time she saw Brick dressed anything other than to the nines, and now…</p><p class="p1">“Fuck me,” she wheezed, too stunned even to laugh, it was that heinous.</p><p class="p1">“Pretty good, huh?” Bubbles sidled up to her with a wrapped present for Brisa under her arm.</p><p class="p1">Buttercup swallowed hard. She didn’t trust her voice as she watched Brick—<em>Brick</em>—snap at Brisa’s friends to line up in an orderly fashion if they wanted their faces painted, and no cutting the line or there would be consequences.</p><p class="p1">“The costume’s a little janky, but I didn’t have a lot of notice when Blossom told me we needed something colorful for him to wear,” Bubbles went on.</p><p class="p1">“Why?” Buttercup croaked. She turned to her baby sister, who seemed totally nonchalant existing in a universe where the selfish clown Blossom had chosen to keep for reasons Buttercup could not sympathize with deigned to dress as a <em>literal fucking clown</em>.</p><p class="p1">Bubbles slipped her hand in Buttercup’s and squeezed affectionately as they watched Brick paint the requested unicorn on Richie’s face as seriously as if it were a goddamned Monet. “I think this is his way of trying,” she said.</p><p class="p1">Buttercup would never forget that day two months ago when Butch asked her to come over after Brick had broken down and apologized to Boomer and him and all he wanted to do was break something, to feel it shatter in his hands, so why not her, who couldn’t break? That fight had been one of their most brutal, even compared to their rows in high school in the throes of raging hormones exacerbated by Chemical X.</p><p class="p1">They hadn’t spoken as they rinsed the dirt and sweat from each other after—Buttercup had been worried about setting him off again after he had settled into some sort of quiet serenity with his fingers in her hair, pulling the tangles out under the warm water like an artist honing his craft. Those hands were always working, always looking for something to crush.</p><p class="p1"><em>“You ever love someone, but you don’t like them?” </em>he’d asked her as she wrung the water from her hair and he stared at his hollow-eyed reflection in the mirror.</p><p class="p1">Buttercup was pulled from the memory when Blossom came out of the house to snap pictures on her phone of the kids with their painted faces, a bright smile on her face as Brick continued to ignore the entire world and focus on his task with surprisingly minimal complaint. Buttercup supposed that if anyone could dress like an ass-backwards buffoon and maintain some pretense of dignity, it was Brick.</p><p class="p1">“Yeah, I guess,” she said at length. She squeezed Bubbles’ hand back.</p><p class="p1">
  <em>He’s trying something, all right.</em>
</p><hr/><p class="p1">“I want a dog, please!” asked a snot-nosed kid inexplicably dressed in a full dinosaur suit.</p><p class="p1">Butch watched Brick from the picnic table he’d plopped down on with a cold beer and three pizza boxes set aside entirely for Boomer and himself.</p><p class="p1">Brick frowned so deeply he looked like he was trying to pass a hardened turd. Wordless, he blew up a long red balloon, tied it off at the end, and handed it to the little boy. “Here.”</p><p class="p1">The kid accepted the unfolded balloon with a quizzical look. “Huh? This isn't a dog.”</p><p class="p1">“Yeah, it is,” Brick said. “It’s a hot dog.”</p><p class="p1">“But that’s not what I asked—hey!” The kid squealed when Brick squirted him with water from the rubber flower pinned to his overall strap.</p><p class="p1">“Next,” Brick said in a tone that promised medieval torture.</p><p class="p1">Cowed, the dinosaur kid slumped away with his shitty balloon, and the next little girl in line made her request.</p><p class="p1">“It had to be a bet,” Butch said grimly as he watched his brother pawn a “magic wand” on the little girl who asked for a monkey. She trudged off with the unfolded purple balloon and a look in her eyes like she’d seen the hidden darkness of this world.</p><p class="p1">Boomer shrugged and swallowed a bite of pizza. He had his back to Brick, but he spared a glance over his shoulder. “I don’t know.”</p><p class="p1">“I mean, he’s gotta know the pictures will live on forever. This is unlimited blackmail.”</p><p class="p1">That got a little chuckle out of Boomer. Butch ruffled his bangs too roughly to be entirely affectionate, and Boomer swatted him away. “Dude, my hair.”</p><p class="p1">“Want me to get you a balloon dick?”</p><p class="p1">Boomer’s gaze flickered to him, and for a moment Butch was transported back twenty years to Mojo’s Observatory. He and Boomer were sometimes left by themselves while Mojo and Brick tinkered in the old man’s lab well into the night with nothing to do and no one to talk to but each other. On nights like that, Butch didn’t really mind it when Boomer crawled into his bunk and fell asleep there. The room always felt a little colder and darker without Brick there.</p><p class="p1">“I’m fine,” Boomer said.</p><p class="p1">Butch searched his eyes, blue and expressive and always shining like he might cry or laugh. He had always envied Boomer that ability to project, to offer a connection, even if it was only pain. He’d always been good at that.</p><p class="p1">“Really,” Boomer added, hardening his gaze like a fucking mind reader. “I’ll be fine.”</p><p class="p1">“Yeah.” Butch wondered how long it would take for that to be true. “You know, it’s been a couple months—”</p><p class="p1">“Butch,” Boomer said, cold like he never was.</p><p class="p1">Butch hopped off the table and put a hand on Boomer’s shoulder. “It’s been a couple months, but it’s not a race. There’s no finish line to cross.”</p><p class="p1">Boomer chuckled, but it sounded kind of like a wheeze. His hand was cool on Butch’s where he squeezed him. “Thanks, Butch.”</p><p class="p1">Butch patted his back. As he was leaving, he heard Boomer call, “Make mine blue.”</p><p class="p1">Butch chuckled. “Sure.”</p><p class="p1">
  <em>Fucking sap. </em>
</p><p class="p1">At least Butch wasn’t the only one.</p><p class="p1">He made his way to the terrace, where Brick was set up with balloons and the face painting station. When Brick noticed his brother waiting in line, the balloon he was inflating went up in flames and disintegrated to ashes, leaving him looking as flushed as his stupid clown nose.</p><p class="p1">“I’m out of balloons, kids. Go dig a hole or something,” he said to the remaining two children.</p><p class="p1">“Huh? But there’s a whole bag—” one little boy with enormous glasses started to say.</p><p class="p1">Brick fired his laser eye beams at the bag of balloons and blew it up. “What bag?”</p><p class="p1">The kids stalked off in a sulk, and Butch sauntered up to the chair Bubbles had brought out from the kitchen table.</p><p class="p1">“Bitch move,” he said, plopping down. “I promised Boomer I’d bring him a blue cock, made special with love.”</p><p class="p1">“Uh-huh,” Brick said. He watched Butch with those shifty red eyes like he might lash out and attack him.</p><p class="p1">Amused and a little nervous, Butch sank into the chair with much bravado and man-spreading. “Paint me like one of your French girls.”</p><p class="p1">Brick narrowed his eyes, but he picked up the paints and sat down in the opposite chair without a word, until: “What do you want?”</p><p class="p1">“I dunno, something cool. A rocket ship.”</p><p class="p1">Silence. Brick leaned in close to apply the paint with a thin brush, meticulous and anal like he was with everything he did. Butch didn’t have to see his face to know he was concentrating way too hard.</p><p class="p1">“I can feel the vibrations of you clenching your asshole from here,” Butch said. “Relax.”</p><p class="p1">“I’m relaxed.”</p><p class="p1">“Fuck off.”</p><p class="p1">Brick put down the brush. “If you keep talking, this is going to turn out shitty.”</p><p class="p1">Butch shut up. Brick resumed painting.</p><p class="p1">After a moment, Butch closed his eyes. There was something soothing about the soft scrape of the brush against his cheek. Behind his eyelids, he saw a much younger version of Brick covered in paint and grinning fiercely, king of the world, until Butch hit him with his paintball gun right in the kisser. Green paint exploded everywhere, and Boomer fell on his ass laughing. Brick angrily wiped the paint from his eyes in a goopy mess and lobbed it back at Butch, who was too far gone to care. Rolling on the grass and covered in paint, he couldn’t remember a happier afternoon spent with his brothers and Mojo. At least, not until Brisa came along.</p><p class="p1">Butch sucked in a breath as he opened his eyes and dispelled that trance-like memory. Brick didn’t even snap at him when he turned his head to look right at him. His face was pinched: his mouth too thin and his eyes too wide as he waited for another pot shot to the face.</p><p class="p1">“You look stupid,” Butch said.</p><p class="p1">“I know,” Brick said.</p><p class="p1">“Really fucking stupid.”</p><p class="p1">Brick’s eye twitched. “I <em>know</em>.”</p><p class="p1">“Thanks.”</p><p class="p1">Brick swallowed. “It’s her birthday.”</p><p class="p1">“Yeah, but I’m your brother. So thanks.”</p><p class="p1">It was not often that Brick was flabbergasted, but the dude looked like someone had just grabbed him by his oversized red nose. Butch burst into a sly smirk and did just that. To his sadistic satisfaction, it squeaked when he squeezed it.</p><p class="p1">“Honk honk, motherfucker,” Butch said.</p><p class="p1">It took Brick all of two seconds to ditch his bewilderment and swat Butch’s hand away. “Shit head.”</p><p class="p1">“Clown.”</p><p class="p1">To Butch’s immense surprise, Brick let him have the last word. <em>Well, damn. </em>He chuckled and leaned back in the chair so Brick could finish painting his cheek. Two months and he barely saw the guy on purpose, and now this.</p><p class="p1">“I’m burning every picture Blossom took today,” Brick said at length.</p><p class="p1">Butch chuckled. “You forgot about the cloud.”</p><p class="p1">“I’m burning that too.”</p><p class="p1">“Now you’re just being a whiny bitch.”</p><p class="p1">“Wipe Bubbles’ phone and I’ll pay you.”</p><p class="p1">“Eh, maybe just grab a beer sometime.” It came out so naturally that he didn’t even think about it. Brick, too, was taken aback. The more he saw it today, the less Butch liked that surprised look in his older brother’s eyes. It was fucking weird. “Seriously. It’s been a minute.”</p><p class="p1">Brick didn’t move. He didn’t even breathe. “Yeah, cool.”</p><p class="p1">“Cool.”</p><p class="p1">
  <em>Cool.</em>
</p><p class="p1">“Hold on, almost done,” Brick said, and grabbed Butch’s chin to turn his face.</p><p class="p1">Butch’s eyes found Brisa running around with a large, green balloon crown on her head and her cheeks painted with rainbows, and his gaze softened. It was almost time for cake.</p><p class="p1">“Done,” Brick announced.</p><p class="p1">Before Butch could reply to that, there was a small commotion at the backyard gate with Bubbles, who followed a very short, very hairy monkey inside.</p><p class="p1">“Grandpa Mojo?” Brisa stopped playing with her friends to greet the old monkey. He had a box with a green bow on top so perfectly wrapped a department store may have done it. His arms were rigid as they held it out and Bubbles hovered just behind him, watchful.</p><p class="p1">“Good afternoon, Brisa. I have procured you a gift to celebrate, rejoice, and otherwise partake in various forms of merriment on this day of your birth, which is to say, your birthday, thus, the day you were born.”</p><p class="p1">Nearby, Blossom paused picking up trash with Robin to eye Mojo askance, nonchalant in that low key frightening I-will-blow-your-dick-off way she had. Buttercup was chatting away with Mitch Mitchelson and Clara Clearly, but she too had eyes only for Mojo.</p><p class="p1">Brisa blushed cutely, suddenly shy. “Thank you.” She accepted the gift and looked between Mojo and Bubbles. “Um, will you stay for cake?”</p><p class="p1">Mojo’s green skin turned a ghastly shade of pink. It took a Butch a moment to realize he was blushing. He was sure he had never seen Mojo blush before.</p><p class="p1">Mojo cleared his throat. “I do not eat cake,” he said with finality.</p><p class="p1">“Oh…” Brisa clutched her new gift to her chest.</p><p class="p1">“But, I suppose… I could sample a beverage while I am here. A guest ought not turn away hospitality when it is offered.”</p><p class="p1">Brisa just smiled brightly and reached for Mojo’s crusty old paw. “I have juice. Oh! And you have to stay for the piñata. Have you met Richie? He’s my best friend in the <em>whole </em>world!”</p><p class="p1">“I do not think—” Mojo lost his words as he was pulled along by his Super granddaughter whether he liked it or not.</p><p class="p1">“Hey.”</p><p class="p1">Brick’s hand on Butch’s shoulder exerting Super pressure made him look down at his hands, which sparked with green power. He clenched his fists and fizzled it out.</p><p class="p1">“You good?” Brick asked, low and grave.</p><p class="p1">Butch sniffled. “Yeah, I’m good. Habit.” He paused, then: “I invited him. Boomer said it was fine.”</p><p class="p1">Brick nodded. “Okay.”</p><p class="p1">Butch’s stupid heart clenched. “I meant to text you—”</p><p class="p1">“Blossom told me. It’s fine, drop it.”</p><p class="p1">He should have dropped it. Two months ago he would have, happily. What the fuck did it matter now when it never had growing up? But that was two months ago. “Don’t fucking do that.”</p><p class="p1">Brick frosted over and got up. “Do what.”</p><p class="p1">“Hey.” Butch grabbed him by his ridiculous overalls. “You and me. No girls. Battle and beers, like the old days.”</p><p class="p1">Brick was a cold hard bastard, but even he had his cracks, and right now he broke like an egg, slack-jawed and lame.</p><p class="p1">“Tomorrow,” Butch said.</p><p class="p1">Brick nodded numbly. “Tomorrow.”</p><p class="p1">Butch smirked and got up to leave, but Brick’s voice stopped him one last time.</p><p class="p1">“Thanks, Butch.”</p><p class="p1">“Sure.”</p><p class="p1">“Tell Boomer it’s a consolation.”</p><p class="p1">“Huh?”</p><p class="p1">But he got nothing more out of Brick once Blossom and Princess showed up.</p><p class="p1">“Oh. My. <em>God</em>. Wait, let’s take a selfie.” Princess managed to get her arm around Brick’s neck, but he snatched her phone before she could take a picture.</p><p class="p1">“No fucking way, Princess,” he said.</p><p class="p1">Blossom grabbed his chin and kissed him right there, shameless. It was enough to distract him so Princess could reclaim her phone. “You know, I kind of like you as a clown.”</p><p class="p1">“I <em>don’t</em>.” Princess managed to snap a picture of Brick and Blossom. “But you’re pulling off the striped overalls, I have to say.”</p><p class="p1">“Burn that.” Brick advanced, but Blossom pulled him back with a laugh.</p><p class="p1">“Why so serious, Brick?” she teased.</p><p class="p1">Princess stuck her tongue out at him.</p><p class="p1">Butch left them to their childish shit; it was time for cake, and he had a brand new six-year-old to impress.</p><hr/><p class="p1">Buttercup was having a surprisingly good time. Between pizza with Butch and Boomer, hanging out with her sisters, and the everlasting memories that were clown Brick saved to her iCloud where he would never find them, today was turning out surprisingly well. Butch caught her eye across the yard and gestured inside, so she excused herself from the conversation with Ty and his sister to follow him.</p><p class="p1">He was in the kitchen when she found him.</p><p class="p1">“Hey, doll. Cornering me for dirty kitchen sex?” he teased.</p><p class="p1">Buttercup laughed at the sight of him, two percent bravado and ninety-eight percent imbecile. “Let me grab you a glass of water for that thirst.”</p><p class="p1">The cake he’d bought sat in a box in the fridge with Brisa’s name scribbled on the lid. Buttercup brought it out and set it on the counter. Then, she hunted for the colorful party platter Bubbles kept for special occasions.</p><p class="p1">Butch’s arms slipped around her waist from behind, and he pressed his nose to her loose hair. “Mm, you smell like pepperoni.”</p><p class="p1">“Eat my dick,” Buttercup said.</p><p class="p1">“I like it.”</p><p class="p1">“I bet you do, you horny carnivore.”</p><p class="p1">“Nooo, not the dirty talk,” he whined, pressing a kiss to her neck and pulling her back against him.</p><p class="p1">Buttercup fought against her growing smile as she opened the cake box and transferred the treat to the platter. “You need rehab.”</p><p class="p1">“If that’s your kink.”</p><p class="p1">Buttercup snorted. “Shut up and help me with this.”</p><p class="p1">They loaded up the chocolate cake on the platter, and Buttercup found the candles in a drawer.</p><p class="p1">“Got some shit on your nose,” Butch said.</p><p class="p1">“What?” He dabbed his chocolate frosted finger on the tip of her nose the moment she turned toward him, and she swatted his hand away. “Oh, come on. What are you, five?” She wiped the frosting from her nose and licked her finger clean.</p><p class="p1">No sooner had she finished than he grabbed her chin and kissed her deeply. In the quiet of the kitchen with no one around to see them, Buttercup gave into feeling and curled her fingers in his flannel shirt. When he smiled against her like the swooning buffoon he’d always been at heart, she laughed and pulled him closer.</p><p class="p1">His hands found their way over the curve of her ass, as they always did, and pulled her against him with a squeeze. “Fuck, I want you.”</p><p class="p1">“You always want me.”</p><p class="p1">“Have you seen your ass? You’d want you too.” He gave her another squeeze, and she had to bite her lip to stifle a moan.</p><p class="p1">Buttercup slipped her fingers through his hair, full and soft on top and shorn short behind the ears. For a moment, they simply stared at each other as Buttercup marveled at how much she wanted this, wanted him. She had never wanted anyone as much as she wanted him, so badly she could feel it threatening to tear her in two.</p><p class="p1">“You have all this power,” he murmured, soft like it was a precious secret he clung to.</p><p class="p1">Buttercup could have laughed at how much he underestimated his own power over her. “Back at you.”</p><p class="p1">“No.” He touched his forehead to hers and breathed like they finally had time. “Not like you. Not like this.” His hand moved to her waist as if to lead her in a dance. “You have me, Buttercup.”</p><p class="p1">Buttercup’s eyes burned with a foreign heat, unwelcome. Butch used to scare her when he spoke to her like this; now, she could only bite her lip and wait for the threat of tears to pass. “Back at you,” she said again, shaky and so fucking grateful.</p><p class="p1">They stayed that way a moment, in the kitchen of her childhood home with the warm smell of chocolate and the low din of the party outside, and for the first time that day, Buttercup felt the tension ease from her shoulders.</p><p class="p1">“By the way,” Butch said, his eyes still closed and his forehead still pressed against her, “I’m fucking the shit out of you when we get back to my place.”</p><p class="p1">Buttercup smirked. “Great example you’re setting for your daughter.”</p><p class="p1">“I got her new headphones with noise canceling.”</p><p class="p1">“She’s going to notice if we break the tub again.”</p><p class="p1">“There’s a hose. She can bathe with that.”</p><p class="p1">“Just pressure wash her like a truck.”</p><p class="p1">“Fast, efficient, and it’ll save on the water bill.”</p><p class="p1">“You don’t even pay for water, the landlord does.”</p><p class="p1">“Hey, I’m a good Samaritan lookin’ out for my neighbors.”</p><p class="p1">“Screw the neighbors.” Buttercup ran her fingers over his lips, down his chin to his chest, where his heart thundered under her touch. “I want you to fuck the shit out of me.”</p><p class="p1">Butch laughed hoarsely. “Maybe I should ask Boomer to take Brisa tonight.”</p><p class="p1">They parted, and Buttercup was about to tell him to grab the cake while she hunted for a knife when she finally noticed his cheek. “Did Brick do that?”</p><p class="p1">“The rocket ship? Yeah, good excuse to talk to him.”</p><p class="p1">“A rocket ship, huh?” Buttercup smiled so brightly her cheeks began to hurt. “That was nice of him.”</p><p class="p1">Butch gave her a weird look. “Whatever, we’re hanging out tomorrow. After today, I figure he can use it.”</p><p class="p1">Buttercup’s throat wrenched as she tried her best not to burst out laughing. “Don’t quote me, but he sort of saved my ass today. The other clown died.”</p><p class="p1">“Shut up.”</p><p class="p1">“I’m serious, he literally died.”</p><p class="p1">“Wow, party almost ruined.”</p><p class="p1">“I mean, also a man is dead.”</p><p class="p1">“Oh, shit, yeah you’re right. Sorry. I guess don’t tell Brisa.”</p><p class="p1">Buttercup rolled her eyes. “Jesus Christ. Grab that cake and don’t drop it.”</p><hr/><p class="p1">Brisa grinned to the point of bursting as everyone sang Happy Birthday to her and she blew out her candles. Cake went by in a breeze as the kids screamed about presents next. Like some hot, pink angel, Blossom took charge of the activities with Robin’s and Buttercup’s assistance and made sure the kids were thoroughly entertained so that Butch could eat his cake and watch his little girl enjoy her special day.</p><p class="p1">Now, seated on the picnic table again with Boomer and Bubbles, he dug into the slice Bubbles said she couldn’t finish.</p><p class="p1">“Hey, Butch,” Boomer said, chill.</p><p class="p1">“Yeah?” Butch asked.</p><p class="p1">“Why’s there a huge dick on your face?”</p><p class="p1">“Huh?”</p><p class="p1">On Butch’s other side, Bubbles poked his painted cheek. “It’s a very proportionate dick. Good dimensions.”</p><p class="p1">Boomer wheezed into his beer. Butch choked on his cake. At the next table over, Brick, that soggy ballsack, stood chatting with Princess Morbucks and Mike Believe still in his full clown regalia sipping sangria through a bendy straw. The moment he felt Butch’s eyes on him, he grinned maliciously around his straw.</p><p class="p1">“Mother<em>fucker</em>—” Butch tried to get up, but Bubbles grabbed his wrist.</p><p class="p1">“Language, Butch. There are children around,” she sang, cheerful as a fucking bell.</p><p class="p1">Butch pointed at Brick. “<em>You</em>—you <em>clown</em>!”</p><p class="p1">“Hey, that’s Flameo Hotman to you,” said Mike, with all the confidence of someone who didn’t know he was about to be drop-kicked in the face.</p><p class="p1">Princess squinted at Butch. “Is that a cock on your face?”</p><p class="p1">“It sure is,” Boomer said, mid-heart attack.</p><p class="p1">“Daddy, come hit the piñata with me!” Brisa came bounding over with a stick and a blindfold.</p><p class="p1">“Great timing, Brisa!” Bubbles shoved Butch way too hard toward his overeager daughter, and he had no choice but to accept the stick and blindfold.</p><p class="p1">“Uh, right,” he stammered, trying to rein it in. It was her birthday; Brick and his dick pic clownery could wait.</p><p class="p1">A hand on Butch’s shoulder squeezed too hard to be entirely friendly, and he turned to get a face full of said clown.</p><p class="p1">“Honk honk, motherfucker,” Brick said under his breath.</p><p class="p1">Butch raised his hand to decapitate his brother right there, but Brisa yanked him with her Super strength, and he had no choice but to let it lie.</p><p class="p1">The sight of Buttercup nearby watching him take his place at the piñata should have mollified him, but she had let him walk out of that kitchen dick pic’d, a betrayal of the highest order…and a quality prank, if he was honest.</p><p class="p1">He’d let his guard down around her.</p><p class="p1">It was his own mistake, underestimating her.</p><p class="p1">The heat of a challenge in her eyes as she watched him lift the blindfold to his eyes set fire to his blood. After all was said and done today and Butch left Brisa with Brick because fuck his fancy Saturday plans, Butch would take Buttercup’s advice and screw the neighbors. Tonight they were putting on a show.</p><p class="p1">With a self-satisfied grin, Butch lowered the blindfold, readied the stick, and imagined the red piñata was Brick in his ridiculous clown nose.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hm, seeding the future Buttercup and Brick friendship I’ve been waiting so long to dive into for this universe? It’s more likely than you think. 👀</p><p>Y’all know the drill! Please drop kudos and a comment if you enjoyed this! I truly enjoy hearing from readers! Thank you so much for reading. Long live the clown cult (Blossom ghostwrote this). 🤡</p></blockquote></div></div>
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